Aaron Rice of St. Clair Shores believes a tax to fund the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak should be used only for the zoo.

“It shouldn’t be used for anything else,” Rice, 24, said. “If the people voted to have their tax dollars go to the Detroit Zoo, then it shouldn’t go to public municipalities to use as they want.”

Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley made sure millage funds will go directly to where they are supposed to go when he recently signed a series of bills that allows the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Institute of Arts to receive 100 percent of millages funding those institutions.

Calley said in a statement that some revenues from those millages were being diverted for other purposes in some municipalities.

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“Voters approved millages to support these cultural icons, and these bills guarantee that the voice of the voters in southeast Michigan is not only heard, but followed,” Calley said.

Kyle Wohlfert, 24, of Highland Park was ecstatic to hear the news of the legislation guaranteeing millage funds for the zoo.

“It’s beyond a cool thing,” Wohlfert said before he and his girlfriend, Stephanie Edlinger, took in a day at the Detroit Zoo.

“I don’t understand how this is even news since millage money should always be used for what its purpose is,” he said. “I’m surprised it (millage funds) would not go to the zoo.”

Legislation was enacted in 2008 and 2010 to assist the state in preserving the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Institute of Arts by creating new county taxing authorities with the power to levy taxes in support of the institutions.

Voters in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties later approved millages to support these institutions.

According to Calley, House Bill 4458, sponsored by state Rep. Eileen Kowall, R-White Lake, prohibits a Tax Increment Finance Authority from capturing regional property taxes meant to subsidize the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Institute of Arts. It is now Public Act 61 of 2013.

HB 4461, sponsored by state Rep. Harold Haugh, D-Roseville, prohibits a Local Development Financing Authority from capturing regional property taxes imposed to subsidize the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

And another bill sponsored by state Rep. John Walsh, R-Livonia, prohibits a tax increment financing plan used to subsidize a local “street railway system” from capturing regional property taxes imposed to subsidize the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Institute of Arts. It is now PA 63.

And HB 4464, sponsored by state Rep. Gail Haines, R-Waterford, prohibits a tax increment financing plan used to pay for public facilities from capturing regional property taxes imposed to subsidize the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Institute for the Arts.

Calley signed the bills when Gov. Rick Snyder was on a trade mission to Israel.